My grandma didn’t use scales.
My mum didn’t either. After all, cooking is an art form, right? Throw a few things together that should work, test as you go, and hey presto!
Not always.
That might work for cooking, but baking is a science. And if there’s one thing I learned on The Great Australian Bakeoff, it’s that the difference between a batch of delicious, round, uniform biscuits, and one giant sloppy pancake biscuit is one item:
Kitchen scales.
You can get a set these days for about 20 bucks, and the difference in your baking will be remarkable.
Listen to chef Matt Moran on what he can’t live without in the kitchen:
Why?
Baking is about precision.
And while most cookbooks, magazine recipes and online recipes offer ingredients in cups and spoon measurements, if you want to up your baking game, the way to perfection is through watching your weight.
Not all ingredients are measured the same.
How dense is your ingredient? One cup of butter is 278 grams. One cup of flour is about 125 grams. What about if that flour is sifted? Is your brown sugar firmly packed in the cup or are there air pockets hidden within? Do you level off your cup measurements so the surface is flat? When you measure liquids do you place your jug or cup on a level surface and bend down to check at eye level? Or are you liberal with quantities and then wonder why things don’t…quite…work? Yeah. That. Scales eliminate all that ‘creativity’ in the process, and then the ‘creativity’ in the result.
Not all measuring cups are the same, either.
I don’t mean when you grab a mug out of the cupboard and guess that it’s roughly a ‘cup’. Between Europe, the US and Australia, actual measuring cups and spoons vary in size. A lot of overseas brands aren’t Australian standard so you could be incorrectly measuring ingredients. Most of the plastic ones found in supermarkets are ok, but scales means you don’t always have to rely on cups.
Some recipes are extremely sensitive.
There are tons of recipes that can handle inaccurate measurements. But if you’re trying something sensitive, accuracy is king.
They can help with a uniform result.
How do some kitchen whizzes get biscuits all the same size? Or bread rolls? They weigh each little ball of round dough before they bake it, to ensure they are all the same weight.
Top Comments
I only use scales to measure butter and have never had a baking fail.
If you use properly tested recipes that clearly set out whether they're using Australian standard measures or not, all you need to do is follow the instructions if you're an average baker. Always assume measurements are level unless specified. It should always say whether or not ingredients are sifted.
The biggest tip I have is ALWAYS check measuring spoons. Chances are, they have a US tablespoon, which is only 15mL instead of the Australian tablespoon, which is 20mL. Same with cups. One standard cup is 250mL. Supermarket bought cups are usually ok, but I'm yet to find proper spoons that have a 20mL spoon. If in doubt, just do 4tsps instead - each teaspoon is 5mL.